Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Hierarchical nature of morphological integration and modularity in the human posterior face

Hierarchical nature of morphological integration and modularity in the human posterior face Morphological integration and modularity are important points of intersection between evolution and the development of organismal form. Identification and quantification of integration are also of increasing paleoanthropological interest. In this study, the “posterior face,” i.e., the mandibular ramus and its integration with the associated midline and lateral basicranium, is analyzed in lateral radiographs of 144 adult humans from three different geographic regions. The null hypothesis of homogenously pervasive morphological integration among “posterior‐face” components is tested with Procrustes geometric morphometrics, partial least squares, and singular warps analysis. The results reveal statistically significant differences in integration. Only loose integrative relationships are found between midline and lateral components of the basicranium, which may indicate the presence of at least two different basicranial modules. This modularity can be interpreted in terms of spatiotemporal dissociation in the development of those basicranial structures, and gives support to hypotheses of independent phylogenetic modifications at the lateral and midline basicranium in humans. In addition, morphological integration was statistically significantly stronger between the middle cranial fossa and the mandibular ramus than between the ramus and the midline cranial base. This finding confirms previous hypotheses of a “petroso‐mandibular unit,” which could be a developmental consequence of well‐known phylogenetic modifications in coronal topology of the posterior face and base in hominoid evolution, related to middle cranial fossa expansion. This unit could be involved in later evolutionary tendencies in the hominid craniofacial system. Am J Phys Anthropol 128:26–34, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Physical Anthropology Wiley

Hierarchical nature of morphological integration and modularity in the human posterior face

Download PDF
9 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/hierarchical-nature-of-morphological-integration-and-modularity-in-the-QXuiieuJM6

References (79)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 Wiley Subscription Services
ISSN
0002-9483
eISSN
1096-8644
DOI
10.1002/ajpa.20191
pmid
15778978
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Morphological integration and modularity are important points of intersection between evolution and the development of organismal form. Identification and quantification of integration are also of increasing paleoanthropological interest. In this study, the “posterior face,” i.e., the mandibular ramus and its integration with the associated midline and lateral basicranium, is analyzed in lateral radiographs of 144 adult humans from three different geographic regions. The null hypothesis of homogenously pervasive morphological integration among “posterior‐face” components is tested with Procrustes geometric morphometrics, partial least squares, and singular warps analysis. The results reveal statistically significant differences in integration. Only loose integrative relationships are found between midline and lateral components of the basicranium, which may indicate the presence of at least two different basicranial modules. This modularity can be interpreted in terms of spatiotemporal dissociation in the development of those basicranial structures, and gives support to hypotheses of independent phylogenetic modifications at the lateral and midline basicranium in humans. In addition, morphological integration was statistically significantly stronger between the middle cranial fossa and the mandibular ramus than between the ramus and the midline cranial base. This finding confirms previous hypotheses of a “petroso‐mandibular unit,” which could be a developmental consequence of well‐known phylogenetic modifications in coronal topology of the posterior face and base in hominoid evolution, related to middle cranial fossa expansion. This unit could be involved in later evolutionary tendencies in the hominid craniofacial system. Am J Phys Anthropol 128:26–34, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Journal

American Journal of Physical Anthropology – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 2005

Keywords: ; ; ; ; ; ;

There are no references for this article.